“It’s our hope that these exciting findings can one day move to the clinic, and that this drug can be used to fight both diseases,” said Dr. Hsiao-Huei Chen. “While trodusquemine is effective, it is a product isolated from sharks and foreign to mammals. We are currently testing a more potent and friendlier mammalian version of trodusquemine that may be more suitable for human studies.”Two recent studies suggest that the drug trodusquemine has the potential to treat symptoms of both schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. This is because the drug targets an enzyme called PTP1B, which plays a role in both diseases.
The studies, published in Neurobiology of Disease, were a collaboration between Dr. Hsiao-Huei Chen’s team at The Ottawa Hospital and uOttawa, and Dr. Alexandre Stewart at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.
In a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, the team found that trodusquemine restored memory deficits and the brain’s cells ability to change and adapt to new information, known as synaptic plasticity. In the second study, they found that the drug also reversed schizophrenia-like behaviours in mice caused by the anesthetic ketamine. This included improving their impaired short-term memory and their ability to filter out unnecessary stimuli from their environment.
Since trodusquemine has already been tested in clinical trials for obesity, it could be repurposed to treat these diseases.
Quote: “It’s our hope that these exciting findings can one day move to the clinic, and that this drug can be used to fight both diseases,” said Dr. Hsiao-Huei Chen. “While trodusquemine is effective, it is a product isolated from sharks and foreign to mammals. We are currently testing a more potent and friendlier mammalian version of trodusquemine that may be more suitable for human studies.”
Funding: Ontario Mental Health Foundation, Alzheimer's Society of Canada, Weston Brain Institute, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. All research at The Ottawa Hospital is also enabled by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
Authors: Both studies: Zhaohong Qin, Li Zhang, Michael A. Zasloff, Alexandre F.R. Stewart, Hsiao-Huei Chen. Alzheimer’s study: Fariba Sharmin, Wei Lin, Konrad M Ricke.
Core Resources: University of Ottawa Animal Behavior Core
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